document_title: Paleolithic

question_text: the paleolithic age man used a hard stone

text: Paleolithic

text: Human evolution[edit]

text: Human evolution is the part of biological evolution concerning the emergence of anatomically modern humans as a distinct species.

text: Paleogeography and climate[edit]

text: The Paleolithic Period coincides almost exactly with the Pleistocene epoch of geologic time, which lasted from 2.6 million years ago to about 12,000 years ago.[12] This epoch experienced important geographic and climatic changes that affected human societies.

text: During the preceding Pliocene, continents had continued to drift from possibly as far as 250 km (160 mi) from their present locations to positions only 70 km (43 mi) from their current location. South America became linked to North America through the Isthmus of Panama, bringing a nearly complete end to South America's distinctive marsupial fauna. The formation of the isthmus had major consequences on global temperatures, because warm equatorial ocean currents were cut off, and the cold Arctic and Antarctic waters lowered temperatures in the now-isolated Atlantic Ocean.

text: Most of Central America formed during the Pliocene to connect the continents of North and South America, allowing fauna from these continents to leave their native habitats and colonize new areas.[13] Africa's collision with Asia created the Mediterranean, cutting off the remnants of the Tethys Ocean. During the Pleistocene, the modern continents were essentially at their present positions; the tectonic plates on which they sit have probably moved at most 100 km (62 mi) from each other since the beginning of the period.[14]

text: Climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier, and seasonal, similar to modern climates. Ice sheets grew on Antarctica. The formation of an Arctic ice cap around 3 million years ago is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean beds.[15] Mid-latitude glaciation probably began before the end of the epoch. The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas.[13] The Pleistocene climate was characterized by repeated glacial cycles during which continental glaciers pushed to the 40th parallel in some places. Four major glacial events have been identified, as well as many minor intervening events. A major event is a general glacial excursion, termed a "glacial". Glacials are separated by "interglacials". During a glacial, the glacier experiences minor advances and retreats. The minor excursion is a "stadial"; times between stadials are "interstadials". Each glacial advance tied up huge volumes of water in continental ice sheets 1,500–3,000 m (4,900–9,800 ft) deep, resulting in temporary sea level drops of 100 m (330 ft) or more over the entire surface of the Earth. During interglacial times, such as at present, drowned coastlines were common, mitigated by isostatic or other emergent motion of some regions.

text: The effects of glaciation were global. Antarctica was ice-bound throughout the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene. The Andes were covered in the south by the Patagonian ice cap. There were glaciers in New Zealand and Tasmania. The now decaying glaciers of Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Ruwenzori Range in east and central Africa were larger. Glaciers existed in the mountains of Ethiopia and to the west in the Atlas mountains. In the northern hemisphere, many glaciers fused into one. The Cordilleran ice sheet covered the North American northwest; the Laurentide covered the east. The Fenno-Scandian ice sheet covered northern Europe, including Great Britain; the Alpine ice sheet covered the Alps. Scattered domes stretched across Siberia and the Arctic shelf. The northern seas were frozen. During the late Upper Paleolithic (Latest Pleistocene) c. 18,000 BP, the Beringia land bridge between Asia and North America was blocked by ice,[14] which may have prevented early Paleo-Indians such as the Clovis culture from directly crossing Beringia to reach the Americas.

text: According to Mark Lynas (through collected data), the Pleistocene's overall climate could be characterized as a continuous El Niño with trade winds in the south Pacific weakening or heading east, warm air rising near Peru, warm water spreading from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific, and other El Niño markers.[16]

text: The Paleolithic is often held to finish at the end of the ice age (the end of the Pleistocene epoch), and Earth's climate became warmer. This may have caused or contributed to the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna, although it is also possible that the late Pleistocene extinctions were (at least in part) caused by other factors such as disease and overhunting by humans.[17][18] New research suggests that the extinction of the woolly mammoth may have been caused by the combined effect of climatic change and human hunting.[18] Scientists suggest that climate change during the end of the Pleistocene caused the mammoths' habitat to shrink in size, resulting in a drop in population. The small populations were then hunted out by Paleolithic humans.[18] The global warming that occurred during the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene may have made it easier for humans to reach mammoth habitats that were previously frozen and inaccessible.[18] Small populations of wooly mammoths survived on isolated Arctic islands, Saint Paul Island and Wrangel Island, until c. 3700 BCE and c. 1700 BCE respectively. The Wrangel Island population became extinct around the same time the island was settled by prehistoric humans.[19] There is no evidence of prehistoric human presence on Saint Paul island (though early human settlements dating as far back as 6500 BCE were found on the nearby Aleutian Islands).[20]

text:
Currently agreed upon classifications as Paleolithic geoclimatic episodes[21]

Age
(before)
America
Atlantic Europe
Maghreb
Mediterranean Europe
Central Europe

10,000 years
Flandrian interglacial
Flandriense
Mellahiense
Versiliense
Flandrian interglacial

80,000 years
Wisconsin
Devensiense
Regresión
Regresión
Wisconsin Stage

140,000 years
Sangamoniense
Ipswichiense
Ouljiense
Tirreniense II y III
Eemian Stage

200,000 years
Illinois
Wolstoniense
Regresión
Regresión
Wolstonian Stage

450,000 years
Yarmouthiense
Hoxniense
Anfatiense
Tirreniense I
Hoxnian Stage

580,000 years
Kansas
Angliense
Regresión
Regresión
Kansan Stage

750,000 years
Aftoniense
Cromeriense
Maarifiense
Siciliense
Cromerian Complex

1,100,000 years
Nebraska
Beestoniense
Regresión
Regresión
Beestonian stage

1,400,000 years
interglaciar
Ludhamiense
Messaudiense
Calabriense
Donau-Günz

tag: table

text: Human way of life[edit]

text: Nearly all of our knowledge of Paleolithic human culture and way of life comes from archaeology and ethnographic comparisons to modern hunter-gatherer cultures such as the !Kung San who live similarly to their Paleolithic predecessors.[22] The economy of a typical Paleolithic society was a hunter-gatherer economy.[23] Humans hunted wild animals for meat and gathered food, firewood, and materials for their tools, clothes, or shelters.[23]

text: Human population density was very low, around only one person per square mile.[3] This was most likely due to low body fat, infanticide, women regularly engaging in intense endurance exercise,[24] late weaning of infants, and a nomadic lifestyle.[3] Like contemporary hunter-gatherers, Paleolithic humans enjoyed an abundance of leisure time unparalleled in both Neolithic farming societies and modern industrial societies.[23][25] At the end of the Paleolithic, specifically the Middle and or Upper Paleolithic, humans began to produce works of art such as cave paintings, rock art and jewellery and began to engage in religious behavior such as burial and ritual.[26]

text: Distribution[edit]

text: At the beginning of the Paleolithic, hominins were found primarily in eastern Africa, east of the Great Rift Valley. Most known hominin fossils dating earlier than one million years before present are found in this area, particularly in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.

text: By c. 2,000,000 – c. 1,500,000 BP, groups of hominins began leaving Africa and settling southern Europe and Asia. Southern Caucasus was occupied by c. 1,700,000 BP, and northern China was reached by c. 1,660,000 BP. By the end of the Lower Paleolithic, members of the hominin family were living in what is now China, western Indonesia, and, in Europe, around the Mediterranean and as far north as England, southern Germany, and Bulgaria. Their further northward expansion may have been limited by the lack of control of fire: studies of cave settlements in Europe indicate no regular use of fire prior to c. 400,000 – c. 300,000 BP.[27]

text: East Asian fossils from this period are typically placed in the genus Homo erectus. Very little fossil evidence is available at known Lower Paleolithic sites in Europe, but it is believed that hominins who inhabited these sites were likewise Homo erectus. There is no evidence of hominins in America, Australia, or almost anywhere in Oceania during this time period.

text: Fates of these early colonists, and their relationships to modern humans, are still subject to debate. According to current archaeological and genetic models, there were at least two notable expansion events subsequent to peopling of Eurasia c. 2,000,000 – c. 1,500,000 BP. Around 500,000 BP a group of early humans, frequently called Homo heidelbergensis, came to Europe from Africa and eventually evolved into Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals). In the Middle Paleolithic, Neanderthals were present in the region now occupied by Poland.

text: Both Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis became extinct by the end of the Paleolithic, having been replaced by a new wave of humans, the anatomically modern Homo sapiens sapiens, which emerged in eastern Africa c. 200,000 BP, left Africa around 50,000 BP, and expanded throughout the planet. It is likely that multiple groups coexisted for some time in certain locations. Neanderthals were still found in parts of Eurasia c. 30,000 BP years, and engaged in a limited degree of interbreeding with modern humans. Hominin fossils not belonging either to Homo neanderthalensis or to Homo sapiens species, found in the Altai Mountains and Indonesia, were radiocarbon dated to c. 30,000 – c. 40,000 BP and c. 17,000 BP respectively.

text: For the duration of the Paleolithic, human populations remained low, especially outside the equatorial region. The entire population of Europe between 16,000 and 11,000 BP likely averaged some 30,000 individuals, and between 40,000 and 16,000 BP, it was even lower at 4,000–6,000 individuals.[28]

text: Technology[edit]

text: Tools[edit]

text: Paleolithic humans made tools of stone, bone, and wood.[23] The early paleolithic hominins, Australopithecus, were the first users of stone tools. Excavations in Gona, Ethiopia have produced thousands of artifacts, and through radioisotopic dating and magnetostratigraphy, the sites can be firmly dated to 2.6 million years ago. Evidence shows these early hominins intentionally selected raw materials with good flaking qualities and chose appropriate sized stones for their needs to produce sharp-edged tools for cutting.[29]

text: The earliest Paleolithic stone tool industry, the Oldowan, began around 2.6 million years ago.[30] It contained tools such as choppers, burins, and stitching awls. It was completely replaced around 250,000 years ago by the more complex Acheulean industry, which was first conceived by Homo ergaster around 1.8–1.65 million years ago.[31] The Acheulean implements completely vanish from the archaeological record around 100,000 years ago and were replaced by more complex Middle Paleolithic tool kits such as the Mousterian and the Aterian industries.[32]

text: Lower Paleolithic humans used a variety of stone tools, including hand axes and choppers. Although they appear to have used hand axes often, there is disagreement about their use. Interpretations range from cutting and chopping tools, to digging implements, to flaking cores, to the use in traps, and as a purely ritual significance, perhaps in courting behavior. William H. Calvin has suggested that some hand axes could have served as "killer Frisbees" meant to be thrown at a herd of animals at a waterhole so as to stun one of them. There are no indications of hafting, and some artifacts are far too large for that. Thus, a thrown hand axe would not usually have penetrated deeply enough to cause very serious injuries. Nevertheless, it could have been an effective weapon for defense against predators. Choppers and scrapers were likely used for skinning and butchering scavenged animals and sharp-ended sticks were often obtained for digging up edible roots. Presumably, early humans used wooden spears as early as 5 million years ago to hunt small animals, much as their relatives, chimpanzees, have been observed to do in Senegal, Africa.[33] Lower Paleolithic humans constructed shelters, such as the possible wood hut at Terra Amata.

text: Fire use[edit]

text: Fire was used by the Lower Paleolithic hominins Homo erectus and Homo ergaster as early as 300,000 to 1.5 million years ago and possibly even earlier by the early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan) hominin Homo habilis and/or by robust Australopithecines such as Paranthropus.[3] However, the use of fire only became common in the societies of the following Middle Stone Age and Middle Paleolithic.[2] Use of fire reduced mortality rates and provided protection against predators.[34] Early hominins may have begun to cook their food as early as the Lower Paleolithic (c. 1.9 million years ago) or at the latest in the early Middle Paleolithic (c. 250,000 years ago).[35] Some scientists have hypothesized that hominins began cooking food to defrost frozen meat, which would help ensure their survival in cold regions.[35]

text: Rafts[edit]

text: The Lower Paleolithic Homo erectus possibly invented rafts (c. 840,000 – c. 800,000 BP) to travel over large bodies of water, which may have allowed a group of Homo erectus to reach the island of Flores and evolve into the small hominin Homo floresiensis. However, this hypothesis is disputed within the anthropological community.[36][37] The possible use of rafts during the Lower Paleolithic may indicate that Lower Paleolithic hominins such as Homo erectus were more advanced than previously believed, and may have even spoken an early form of modern language.[36] Supplementary evidence from Neanderthal and modern human sites located around the Mediterranean Sea, such as Coa de sa Multa (c. 300,000 BP), has also indicated that both Middle and Upper Paleolithic humans used rafts to travel over large bodies of water (i.e. the Mediterranean Sea) for the purpose of colonizing other bodies of land.[36][38]

text: Advanced tools[edit]

text: By around 200,000 BP, Middle Paleolithic stone tool manufacturing spawned a tool making technique known as the prepared-core technique, that was more elaborate than previous Acheulean techniques.[6] This technique increased efficiency by allowing the creation of more controlled and consistent flakes.[6] It allowed Middle Paleolithic humans to create stone tipped spears, which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. In addition to improving tool making methods, the Middle Paleolithic also saw an improvement of the tools themselves that allowed access to a wider variety and amount of food sources. For example, microliths or small stone tools or points were invented around 70,000–65,000 BP and were essential to the invention of bows and spear throwers in the following Upper Paleolithic period.[34]

text: Harpoons were invented and used for the first time during the late Middle Paleolithic (c. 90,000 BP); the invention of these devices brought fish into the human diets, which provided a hedge against starvation and a more abundant food supply.[38][39] Thanks to their technology and their advanced social structures, Paleolithic groups such as the Neanderthals—who had a Middle Paleolithic level of technology—appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic modern humans.[40] and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons.[41] Nonetheless, Neanderthal use of projectile weapons in hunting occurred very rarely (or perhaps never) and the Neanderthals hunted large game animals mostly by ambushing them and attacking them with mêlée weapons such as thrusting spears rather than attacking them from a distance with projectile weapons.[26][42]

text: Other inventions[edit]

text: During the Upper Paleolithic, further inventions were made, such as the net c. 22,000 or c. 29,000 BP)[34] bolas,[43] the spear thrower (c. 30,000 BP), the bow and arrow (c. 25,000 or c. 30,000 BP)[3] and the oldest example of ceramic art, the Venus of Dolní Věstonice (c. 29,000 – c. 25,000 BCE).[3] Early dogs were domesticated, sometime between 30,000 and 14,000 BP, presumably to aid in hunting.[44] However, the earliest instances of successful domestication of dogs may be much more ancient than this. Evidence from canine DNA collected by Robert K. Wayne suggests that dogs may have been first domesticated in the late Middle Paleolithic around 100,000 BP or perhaps even earlier.[45]

text: Archaeological evidence from the Dordogne region of France demonstrates that members of the European early Upper Paleolithic culture known as the Aurignacian used calendars (c. 30,000 BP). This was a lunar calendar that was used to document the phases of the moon. Genuine solar calendars did not appear until the following Neolithic period.[46] Upper Paleolithic cultures were probably able to time the migration of game animals such as wild horses and deer.[47] This ability allowed humans to become efficient hunters and to exploit a wide variety of game animals.[47] Recent research indicates that the Neanderthals timed their hunts and the migrations of game animals long before the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic.[40]

text: Social organization[edit]

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text: The social organization of the earliest Paleolithic (Lower Paleolithic) societies remains largely unknown to scientists, though Lower Paleolithic hominins such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus are likely to have had more complex social structures than chimpanzee societies.[48] Late Oldowan/Early Acheulean humans such as Homo ergaster/Homo erectus may have been the first people to invent central campsites or home bases and incorporate them into their foraging and hunting strategies like contemporary hunter-gatherers, possibly as early as 1.7 million years ago;[6] however, the earliest solid evidence for the existence of home bases or central campsites (hearths and shelters) among humans only dates back to 500,000 years ago.[6][dead link]

text: Similarly, scientists disagree whether Lower Paleolithic humans were largely monogamous or polygynous.[48] In particular, the Provisional model suggests that bipedalism arose in pre-Paleolithic australopithecine societies as an adaptation to monogamous lifestyles; however, other researchers note that sexual dimorphism is more pronounced in Lower Paleolithic humans such as Homo erectus than in modern humans, who are less polygynous than other primates, which suggests that Lower Paleolithic humans had a largely polygynous lifestyle, because species that have the most pronounced sexual dimorphism tend more likely to be polygynous.[49]

text: Human societies from the Paleolithic to the early Neolithic farming tribes lived without states and organized governments. For most of the Lower Paleolithic, human societies were possibly more hierarchical than their Middle and Upper Paleolithic descendants, and probably were not grouped into bands,[50] though during the end of the Lower Paleolithic, the latest populations of the hominin Homo erectus may have begun living in small-scale (possibly egalitarian) bands similar to both Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies and modern hunter-gatherers.[50]

text: Middle Paleolithic societies, unlike Lower Paleolithic and early Neolithic ones, consisted of bands that ranged from 20–30 or 25–100 members and were usually nomadic.[3][50] These bands were formed by several families. Bands sometimes joined together into larger "macrobands" for activities such as acquiring mates and celebrations or where resources were abundant.[3] By the end of the Paleolithic era (c. 10,000 BP), people began to settle down into permanent locations, and began to rely on agriculture for sustenance in many locations. Much evidence exists that humans took part in long-distance trade between bands for rare commodities (such as ochre, which was often used for religious purposes such as ritual[51][52]) and raw materials, as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.[26] Inter-band trade may have appeared during the Middle Paleolithic because trade between bands would have helped ensure their survival by allowing them to exchange resources and commodities such as raw materials during times of relative scarcity (i.e. famine, drought).[26] Like in modern hunter-gatherer societies, individuals in Paleolithic societies may have been subordinate to the band as a whole.[22][23] Both Neanderthals and modern humans took care of the elderly members of their societies during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.[26]

text: Some sources claim that most Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies were possibly fundamentally egalitarian[3][23][38][53] and may have rarely or never engaged in organized violence between groups (i.e. war).[38][54][55][56] Some Upper Paleolithic societies in resource-rich environments (such as societies in Sungir, in what is now Russia) may have had more complex and hierarchical organization (such as tribes with a pronounced hierarchy and a somewhat formal division of labor) and may have engaged in endemic warfare.[38][57] Some argue that there was no formal leadership during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Like contemporary egalitarian hunter-gatherers such as the Mbuti pygmies, societies may have made decisions by communal consensus decision making rather than by appointing permanent rulers such as chiefs and monarchs.[8] Nor was there a formal division of labor during the Paleolithic. Each member of the group was skilled at all tasks essential to survival, regardless of individual abilities. Theories to explain the apparent egalitarianism have arisen, notably the Marxist concept of primitive communism.[58][59] Christopher Boehm (1999) has hypothesized that egalitarianism may have evolved in Paleolithic societies because of a need to distribute resources such as food and meat equally to avoid famine and ensure a stable food supply.[60] Raymond C. Kelly speculates that the relative peacefulness of Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies resulted from a low population density, cooperative relationships between groups such as reciprocal exchange of commodities and collaboration on hunting expeditions, and because the invention of projectile weapons such as throwing spears provided less incentive for war, because they increased the damage done to the attacker and decreased the relative amount of territory attackers could gain.[56] However, other sources claim that most Paleolithic groups may have been larger, more complex, sedentary and warlike than most contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, due to occupying more resource-abundant areas than most modern hunter-gatherers who have been pushed into more marginal habitats by agricultural societies.[61]

text: Anthropologists have typically assumed that in Paleolithic societies, women were responsible for gathering wild plants and firewood, and men were responsible for hunting and scavenging dead animals.[3][38] However, analogies to existent hunter-gatherer societies such as the Hadza people and the Aboriginal Austrialians suggest that the sexual division of labor in the Paleolithic was relatively flexible. Men may have participated in gathering plants, firewood and insects, and women may have procured small game animals for consumption and assisted men in driving herds of large game animals (such as woolly mammoths and deer) off cliffs.[38][55] Additionally, recent research by anthropologist and archaeologist Steven Kuhn from the University of Arizona is argued to support that this division of labor did not exist prior to the Upper Paleolithic and was invented relatively recently in human pre-history.[62][63] Sexual division of labor may have been developed to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently.[63] Possibly there was approximate parity between men and women during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, and that period may have been the most gender-equal time in human history.[54][64][65] Archaeological evidence from art and funerary rituals indicates that a number of individual women enjoyed seemingly high status in their communities, and it is likely that both sexes participated in decision making.[65] The earliest known Paleolithic shaman (c. 30,000 BP) was female.[66] Jared Diamond suggests that the status of women declined with the adoption of agriculture because women in farming societies typically have more pregnancies and are expected to do more demanding work than women in hunter-gatherer societies.[67] Like most contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, Paleolithic and the Mesolithic groups probably followed mostly matrilineal and ambilineal descent patterns; patrilineal descent patterns were probably rarer than in the following Neolithic period.[34][52]

text: Sculpture and painting[edit]

text: Early examples of artistic expression, such as the Venus of Tan-Tan and the patterns found on elephant bones from Bilzingsleben in Thuringia, may have been produced by Acheulean tool users such as Homo erectus prior to the start of the Middle Paleolithic period. However, the earliest undisputed evidence of art during the Paleolithic period comes from Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age sites such as Blombos Cave –South Africa– in the form of bracelets,[68] beads,[69] rock art,[51] and ochre used as body paint and perhaps in ritual.[38][51] Undisputed evidence of art only becomes common in the following Upper Paleolithic period.[70]

text: Lower Paleolithic Acheulean tool users, according to Robert G. Bednarik, began to engage in symbolic behavior such as art around 850,000 BP. They decorated themselves with beads and collected exotic stones for aesthetic, rather than utilitarian qualities.[71] According to him, traces of the pigment ochre from late Lower Paleolithic Acheulean archaeological sites suggests that Acheulean societies, like later Upper Paleolithic societies, collected and used ochre to create rock art.[71] Nevertheless, it is also possible that the ochre traces found at Lower Paleolithic sites is naturally occurring.[72]

text: Vincent W. Fallio interprets Lower and Middle Paleolithic marking on rocks at sites such as Bilzingsleben (such as zigzagging lines) as accounts or representations of altered states of consciousness[73] though some other scholars interpret them as either simple doodling or as the result of natural processes.

text: Upper Paleolithic humans produced works of art such as cave paintings, Venus figurines, animal carvings, and rock paintings.[74] Upper Paleolithic art can be divided into two broad categories: figurative art such as cave paintings that clearly depicts animals (or more rarely humans); and nonfigurative, which consists of shapes and symbols.[74] Cave paintings have been interpreted in a number of ways by modern archaeologists. The earliest explanation, by the prehistorian Abbe Breuil, interpreted the paintings as a form of magic designed to ensure a successful hunt.[75] However, this hypothesis fails to explain the existence of animals such as saber-toothed cats and lions, which were not hunted for food, and the existence of half-human, half-animal beings in cave paintings. The anthropologist David Lewis-Williams has suggested that Paleolithic cave paintings were indications of shamanistic practices, because the paintings of half-human, half-animal paintings and the remoteness of the caves are reminiscent of modern hunter-gatherer shamanistic practices.[75] Symbol-like images are more common in Paleolithic cave paintings than are depictions of animals or humans, and unique symbolic patterns might have been trademarks that represent different Upper Paleolithic ethnic groups.[76] Venus figurines have evoked similar controversy. Archaeologists and anthropologists have described the figurines as representations of goddesses, pornographic imagery, apotropaic amulets used for sympathetic magic, and even as self-portraits of women themselves.[38][77]

text: R. Dale Guthrie[78] has studied not only the most artistic and publicized paintings, but also a variety of lower-quality art and figurines, and he identifies a wide range of skill and ages among the artists. He also points out that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the over-sexual representation of women) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males during the Upper Paleolithic.

text: The"Venus" figurines have been theorized, not universally, as representing a mother goddess; the abundance of such female imagery has inspired the theory that Paleolithic (and later Neolithic) societies centered their religion and societies around women. Adherents of the theory include archaeologist Marija Gimbutas and feminist scholar Merlin Stone, the author of the 1976 book When God Was a Woman.[79][80] Other explanations for the purpose of the figurines have been proposed, such as Catherine McCoid and LeRoy McDermott's hypothesis that they were self-portraits of woman artists[77] and R.Dale Gutrie's hypothesis that served as "stone age pornography".

text: Music[edit]

text: The origins of music during the Paleolithic are unknown. The earliest forms of music probably did not use musical instruments other than the human voice and/or natural objects such as rocks. This early music would not have left an archaeological footprint. Music may have developed from rhythmic sounds produced by daily chores, for example, cracking open nuts with stones. Maintaining a rhythm while working may have helped people to become more efficient at daily activities.[81] An alternative theory originally proposed by Charles Darwin explains that music may have begun as a hominin mating strategy. Bird and other animal species produce music such as calls to attract mates.[82] This hypothesis is generally less accepted than the previous hypothesis, but nonetheless provides a possible alternative. Another explanation is that humans began to make music simply because it pleased them.

text: Upper Paleolithic (and possibly Middle Paleolithic)[83] humans used flute-like bone pipes as musical instruments,[38][84] and music may have played a large role in the religious lives of Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. As with modern hunter-gatherer societies, music may have been used in ritual or to help induce trances. In particular, it appears that animal skin drums may have been used in religious events by Upper Paleolithic shamans, as shown by the remains of drum-like instruments from some Upper Paleolithic graves of shamans and the ethnographic record of contemporary hunter-gatherer shamanic and ritual practices.[66][74]

text: Religion and beliefs[edit]

text: According to James B. Harrod humankind first developed religious and spiritual beliefs during the Middle Paleolithic or Upper Paleolithic.[85] Controversial scholars of prehistoric religion and anthropology, James Harrod and Vincent W. Fallio, have recently proposed that religion and spirituality (and art) may have first arisen in Pre-Paleolithic chimpanzees[86] or Early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan) societies.[73][87] According to Fallio, the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans experienced altered states of consciousness and partook in ritual, and ritual was used in their societies to strengthen social bonding and group cohesion.[73]

text: Middle Paleolithic humans' use of burials at sites such as Krapina, Croatia (c. 130,000 BP) and Qafzeh, Israel (c. 100,000 BP) have led some anthropologists and archaeologists, such as Philip Lieberman, to believe that Middle Paleolithic humans may have possessed a belief in an afterlife and a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life".[7] Cut marks on Neanderthal bones from various sites, such as Combe-Grenal and Abri Moula in France, suggest that the Neanderthals—like some contemporary human cultures—may have practiced ritual defleshing for (presumably) religious reasons. According to recent archaeological findings from Homo heidelbergensis sites in Atapuerca, humans may have begun burying their dead much earlier, during the late Lower Paleolithic; but this theory is widely questioned in the scientific community.

text: Likewise, some scientists have proposed that Middle Paleolithic societies such as Neanderthal societies may also have practiced the earliest form of totemism or animal worship, in addition to their (presumably religious) burial of the dead. In particular, Emil Bächler suggested (based on archaeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a bear cult was widespread among Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals.[88] A claim that evidence was found for Middle Paleolithic animal worship c. 70,000 BCE originates from the Tsodilo Hills in the African Kalahari desert has been denied by the original investigators of the site.[89] Animal cults in the following Upper Paleolithic period, such as the bear cult, may have had their origins in these hypothetical Middle Paleolithic animal cults.[90] Animal worship during the Upper Paleolithic was intertwined with hunting rites.[90] For instance, archaeological evidence from art and bear remains reveals that the bear cult apparently involved a type of sacrificial bear ceremonialism, in which a bear was sliced with arrows, finished off by a blast in the lungs, and ritualistically worshipped near a clay bear statue covered by a bear fur with the skull and the body of the bear buried separately.[90] Barbara Ehrenreich controversially theorizes that the sacrificial hunting rites of the Upper Paleolithic (and by extension Paleolithic cooperative big-game hunting) gave rise to war or warlike raiding during the following Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic or late Upper Paleolithic period.[55]

text: The existence of anthropomorphic images and half-human, half-animal images in the Upper Paleolithic period may further indicate that Upper Paleolithic humans were the first people to believe in a pantheon of gods or supernatural beings,[91] though such images may instead indicate shamanistic practices similar to those of contemporary tribal societies.[75] The earliest known undisputed burial of a shaman (and by extension the earliest undisputed evidence of shamans and shamanic practices) dates back to the early Upper Paleolithic era (c. 30,000 BP) in what is now the Czech Republic.[66] However, during the early Upper Paleolithic it was probably more common for all members of the band to participate equally and fully in religious ceremonies, in contrast to the religious traditions of later periods when religious authorities and part-time ritual specialists such as shamans, priests and medicine men were relatively common and integral to religious life.[23] Additionally, it is also possible that Upper Paleolithic religions, like contemporary and historical animistic and polytheistic religions, believed in the existence of a single creator deity in addition to other supernatural beings such as animistic spirits.[92]

text: Vincent W. Fallio writes that ancestor cults first emerged in complex Upper Paleolithic societies. He argues that the elites of these societies (like the elites of many more contemporary complex hunter-gatherers such as the Tlingit) may have used special rituals and ancestor worship to solidify control over their societies, by convincing their subjects that they possess a link to the spirit world that also gives them control over the earthly realm.[73] Secret societies may have served a similar function in these complex quasi-theocratic societies, by dividing the religious practices of these cultures into the separate spheres of folk religion and elite religion.[73]

text: Religion was possibly apotropaic; specifically, it may have involved sympathetic magic.[38] The Venus figurines, which are abundant in the Upper Paleolithic archaeological record, provide an example of possible Paleolithic sympathetic magic, as they may have been used for ensuring success in hunting and to bring about fertility of the land and women.[3] The Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines have sometimes been explained as depictions of an earth goddess similar to Gaia, or as representations of a goddess who is the ruler or mother of the animals.[90][93] James Harrod has described them as representative of female (and male) shamanistic spiritual transformation processes.[94]

text: Diet and nutrition[edit]

text: Paleolithic hunting and gathering people ate varying proportions of vegetables (including tubers and roots), fruit, seeds (including nuts and wild grass seeds) and insects, meat, fish, and shellfish.[96][97] However, there is little direct evidence of the relative proportions of plant and animal foods.[98] Although the term "paleolithic diet", without references to a specific timeframe or locale, is sometimes used with an implication that most humans shared a certain diet during the entire era, that is not entirely accurate. The Paleolithic was an extended period of time, during which multiple technological advances were made, many of which had impact on human dietary structure. For example, humans probably did not possess the control of fire until the Middle Paleolithic,[99] or tools necessary to engage in extensive fishing.[citation needed] On the other hand, both these technologies are generally agreed to have been widely available to humans by the end of the Paleolithic (consequently, allowing humans in some regions of the planet to rely heavily on fishing and hunting). In addition, the Paleolithic involved a substantial geographical expansion of human populations. During the Lower Paleolithic, ancestors of modern humans are thought to have been constrained to Africa east of the Great Rift Valley. During the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, humans greatly expanded their area of settlement, reaching ecosystems as diverse as New Guinea and Alaska, and adapting their diets to whatever local resources were available.

text: Another view is that until the Upper Paleolithic, humans were frugivores (fruit eaters) who supplemented their meals with carrion, eggs, and small prey such as baby birds and mussels, and only on rare occasions managed to kill and consume big game such as antelopes.[100] This view is supported by studies of higher apes, particularly chimpanzees. Chimpanzees are the closest to humans genetically, sharing more than 96% of their DNA code with humans, and their digestive tract is functionally very similar to that of humans.[101] Chimpanzees are primarily frugivores, but they could and would consume and digest animal flesh, given the opportunity. In general, their actual diet in the wild is about 95% plant-based, with the remaining 5% filled with insects, eggs, and baby animals.[102][103] In some ecosystems, however, chimpanzees are predatory, forming parties to hunt monkeys.[104] Some comparative studies of human and higher primate digestive tracts do suggest that humans have evolved to obtain greater amounts of calories from sources such as animal foods, allowing them to shrink the size of the gastrointestinal tract relative to body mass and to increase the brain mass instead.[105][106]

text: Anthropologists have diverse opinions about the proportions of plant and animal foods consumed. Just as with still existing hunters and gatherers, there were many varied "diets"—in different groups—and also varying through this vast amount of time. Some paleolithic hunter-gatherers consumed a significant amount of meat and possibly obtained most of their food from hunting,[107] while others are shown as a primarily plant-based diet,[62] Most, if not all, are believed to have been opportunistic omnivores.[108] One hypothesis is that carbohydrate tubers (plant underground storage organs) may have been eaten in high amounts by pre-agricultural humans.[109][110][111][112] It is thought that the Paleolithic diet included as much as 1.65–1.9 kg (3.6–4.2 lb) per day of fruit and vegetables.[113] The relative proportions of plant and animal foods in the diets of Paleolithic people often varied between regions, with more meat being necessary in colder regions (which weren't populated by anatomically modern humans until c. 30,000 – c. 50,000 BP).[114] It is generally agreed that many modern hunting and fishing tools, such as fish hooks, nets, bows, and poisons, weren't introduced until the Upper Paleolithic and possibly even Neolithic.[34] The only hunting tools widely available to humans during any significant part of the Paleolithic period were hand-held spears and harpoons. There's evidence of Paleolithic people killing and eating seals and elands as far as c. 100,000 BP. On the other hand, buffalo bones found in African caves from the same period are typically of very young or very old individuals, and there's no evidence that pigs, elephants, or rhinos were hunted by humans at the time.[115]

text: Paleolithic peoples suffered less famine and malnutrition than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them.[22][116] This was partly because Paleolithic hunter-gatherers accessed a wider variety natural foods, which allowed them a more nutritious diet and a decreased risk of famine.[22][24][67] Many of the famines experienced by Neolithic (and some modern) farmers were caused or amplified by their dependence on a small number of crops.[22][24][67] It is thought that wild foods can have a significantly different nutritional profile than cultivated foods.[117] The greater amount of meat obtained by hunting big game animals in Paleolithic diets than Neolithic diets may have also allowed Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to enjoy a more nutritious diet than Neolithic agriculturalists.[116] It has been argued that the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture resulted in an increasing focus on a limited variety of foods, with meat likely taking a back seat to plants.[118] It is also unlikely that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were affected by modern diseases of affluence such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease, because they ate mostly lean meats and plants and frequently engaged in intense physical activity,[119][120] and because the average lifespan was shorter than the age of common onset of these conditions.[121][122]

text: Large-seeded legumes were part of the human diet long before the Neolithic Revolution, as evident from archaeobotanical finds from the Mousterian layers of Kebara Cave, in Israel.[123] There is evidence suggesting that Paleolithic societies were gathering wild cereals for food use at least as early as 30,000 years ago.[124] However, seeds—such as grains and beans—were rarely eaten and never in large quantities on a daily basis.[125] Recent archaeological evidence also indicates that winemaking may have originated in the Paleolithic, when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches.[95] Paleolithic humans consumed animal organ meats, including the livers, kidneys, and brains. Upper Paleolithic cultures appear to have had significant knowledge about plants and herbs and may have, albeit very rarely, practiced rudimentary forms of horticulture.[126] In particular, bananas and tubers may have been cultivated as early as 25,000 BP in southeast Asia.[61] Late Upper Paleolithic societies also appear to have occasionally practiced pastoralism and animal husbandry, presumably for dietary reasons. For instance, some European late Upper Paleolithic cultures domesticated and raised reindeer, presumably for their meat or milk, as early as 14,000 BP.[44] Humans also probably consumed hallucinogenic plants during the Paleolithic period.[3] The Aboriginal Australians have been consuming a variety of native animal and plant foods, called bushfood, for an estimated 60,000 years, since the Middle Paleolithic.

text: People during the Middle Paleolithic, such as the Neanderthals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa, began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neanderthal sites in Italy about 110,000 years ago and in Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens sites at Pinnacle Point, Africa around 164,000 BP.[38][127] Although fishing only became common during the Upper Paleolithic,[38][128] fish have been part of human diets long before the dawn of the Upper Paleolithic and have certainly been consumed by humans since at least the Middle Paleolithic.[47] For example, the Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in the region now occupied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo hunted large 6 ft (1.8 m)-long catfish with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago.[38][47] The invention of fishing allowed some Upper Paleolithic and later hunter-gatherer societies to become sedentary or semi-nomadic, which altered their social structures.[84] Example societies are the Lepenski Vir as well as some contemporary hunter-gatherers, such as the Tlingit. In some instances (at least the Tlingit), they developed social stratification, slavery, and complex social structures such as chiefdoms.[34]

text: Anthropologists such as Tim White suggest that cannibalism was common in human societies prior to the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, based on the large amount of “butchered human" bones found in Neanderthal and other Lower/Middle Paleolithic sites.[129] Cannibalism in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages.[130] However, it may have been for religious reasons, and would coincide with the development of religious practices thought to have occurred during the Upper Paleolithic.[90][131] Nonetheless, it remains possible that Paleolithic societies never practiced cannibalism, and that the damage to recovered human bones was either the result of excarnation or predation by carnivores such as saber-toothed cats, lions, and hyenas.[90]

text: A modern-day diet known as the Paleolithic diet exists, based on restricting consumption to the foods presumed to be available to anatomically modern humans prior to the advent of settled agriculture.[132]


document_title: Money in the Bank ladder match

question_text: who won the first money in the bank

question_tokens: who won the first money in the bank

root

text: Money in the Bank ladder match

text: Concept[edit]

text: The Money in the Bank ladder match can feature anywhere from 5–10 participants, with the objective being to retrieve a briefcase that is suspended 20 feet above the ring. The match was originally only for male wrestlers until 2017 when women began to have their own ladder match.[1] The briefcase contains a contract that guarantees a match for a world championship, and beginning in 2017, a women's championship. Originally, wrestlers had the option between the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship, regardless of the brand the wrestler belonged to. In 2006, ECW's world title, the ECW Championship, became a third option until 2010 as in February that year, the ECW brand along with the title was deactivated. Beginning with the inaugural Money in the Bank pay-per-view in 2010, the event featured two ladder matches, one for the Raw brand and one for SmackDown; Raw's ladder match featured a contract for a WWE Championship match while SmackDown's contract was for a World Heavyweight Championship match. Although the brand extension ended after the 2011 event, a ladder match dedicated to each championship continued through the 2013 event. In December 2013, the titles were unified into the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The next three years' events featured a sole ladder match with a contract guaranteeing a match for the unified title. The brand extension returned after the 2016 event. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship was reverted to WWE Championship and made exclusive to SmackDown while Raw established the WWE Universal Championship as their top title. Despite this, the 2017 event was made a SmackDown exclusive pay-per-view and the contract was for its world title. Also at the 2017 event, the first-ever Women's Money in the Bank ladder match occurred with its contract for a SmackDown Women's Championship match.[1][2]

tag: p

text: The primary gimmick of the Money in the Bank briefcase is that it can be cashed in at the holder's sole discretion, at literally any time on any WWE programming, unless the contract is brand specific. This enables the holder to take advantage of a moment's weakness in the champion, even if the champion had just finished a title defense for the night. This strategic use of the briefcase was popularized by Edge, the first Money in the Bank holder, who cashed it in at New Years Revolution in January 2006, immediately after defending champion John Cena had finished a grueling Elimination Chamber match against five other wrestlers. Because Cena was exhausted and barely able to defend himself, Edge made quick work of the champion, thus setting a powerful precedent for all Money in the Bank holders to come.

text: The contract is valid for one year and the briefcase holder – dubbed "Mr. Money in the Bank" (or in the case of women, "Ms. Money in the Bank") – can cash in the contract at the date, place, and time of their choosing.[1][3] The briefcase may also be defended in matches, similar to how championships are defended. All of the briefcase holders have successfully defended and cashed in the contract except Mr. Kennedy.[4] John Cena, Damien Sandow, and Baron Corbin are the only Money in the Bank contract holders to cash in and fail to gain a championship. To date, Cena has had the contract cashed in against him the most (three times) as Edge, Rob Van Dam, and Damien Sandow have all cashed in against him. Cena was also involved in all instances where the championship failed to change hands after cashing in the contract, once as the challenger (which he won by DQ against CM Punk) and the second time as champion (defeating Sandow clean), and lastly as a distraction causing Corbin to lose to champion Jinder Mahal. Edge, Daniel Bryan, and Seth Rollins are the only Money in the Bank contract holders to be given a title shot for a championship without having cashed in the contract for the title shot (Edge won a championship tournament in 2005 on Raw to earn him a title match against Batista, Bryan faced then-World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry in a steel cage match on a live Christmas episode of SmackDown in 2011, and Rollins received a title shot in a triple threat match, also involving Cena and champion Brock Lesnar, at the 2015 Royal Rumble).

text: History[edit]

text: In WWE storyline, the concept for the Money in the Bank match was introduced in March 2005 by Chris Jericho. Jericho then pitched the idea to Raw general manager Eric Bischoff, who liked it and promptly began to book the match for WrestleMania 21. Edge won the inaugural match and held the contract until New Year's Revolution in January 2006. There, he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract against WWE Champion John Cena, who had just successfully defended the title in an Elimination Chamber match. Edge defeated Cena to become WWE Champion.

text: The Money in the Bank idea was revived by Carlito on a February 2006 episode of Raw. Mr. McMahon approved the suggestion and set up qualifying matches for the match that would take place at WrestleMania 22. It was later announced that the match was to be interpromotional, and SmackDown general manager Theodore Long also set up qualifying matches to select three members of his roster to compete. In the Raw brand qualifying matches, Rob Van Dam defeated Trevor Murdoch, Shelton Benjamin defeated Chavo Guerrero, and Ric Flair defeated Carlito. On SmackDown!, Finlay defeated Bobby Lashley, Matt Hardy defeated Road Warrior Animal, and Bobby Lashley won a "last chance battle royal".

text: Rob Van Dam won the WrestleMania 22 Money in the Bank ladder match after pushing Shelton Benjamin and Matt Hardy off of a ladder, while he was on another ladder, and retrieving the briefcase. That April, he defended the contract and won the WWE Intercontinental Championship in a contract vs. title/winner take all match against Benjamin at Backlash. Van Dam announced in May 2006 that he would cash in his contract at One Night Stand against Cena in an Extreme Rules match. The match ended with Cena losing after Van Dam performed a Five Star Frog Splash. Van Dam is the first person to give prior notice to an opponent before cashing in his contract, presumably to ensure Cena appeared at the event. He is also the first person to win the title in a match where the contract was cashed in with prior notice.

text: The third Money in the Bank ladder match was held at WrestleMania 23, and was the first to feature eight participants from Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW. Qualifying matches began on the February 19 episode of Raw.[5] On the February 19 episode of Raw, two former Money in the Bank winners (Edge and Rob Van Dam) faced off, with Edge earning a pinfall win to earn the first spot in the match.[6]

text: The next night on ECW, another cross-brand match took place, with CM Punk defeating Johnny Nitro to qualify.[7] On that week's SmackDown!, King Booker defeated Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match following interference from The Great Khali to become the third man to qualify.[8] On the following episode of Raw, Jeff Hardy defeated Shelton Benjamin to become the fourth man to qualify.[9] The next night on ECW, Mr. Kennedy defeated Sabu in an Extreme Rules match to earn the fifth spot.[10] Two qualifying matches took place on the next SmackDown!'s episode, with Matt Hardy defeating Joey Mercury, while Finlay won a triple threat match against Chris Benoit and Montel Vontavious Porter to qualify.[11] What was to be the final qualifying match on Raw between Carlito and Ric Flair, it was deemed to be a no contest when The Great Khali interfered and attacked both men.[12] The match was rescheduled for the next week on Raw, with Randy Orton bribing his way into the match, which was to be a triple threat elimination match that Orton won by pinning both Carlito and Flair after performing an RKO on each of them.[13] Edge and Orton had recently stopped teaming together, and there was a lot of tension between them as they both attempted to get the other taken out of the Money in the Bank ladder match; both failed, as Edge ultimately won a "last chance battle royal" after feigning injury to retain his slot.[14] Orton was forced to fight Bobby Lashley on ECW to retain his spot, which he did.[15]

text: Kennedy ultimately won at WrestleMania 23, after ramming Punk off the ladder using another ladder (Edge had been taken out earlier by Jeff Hardy).[16] During the next few weeks, Kennedy kept declaring that he would cash in the briefcase at WrestleMania XXIV, but he suffered a legit injury, and on the May 7, 2007 episode of Raw, he lost the Money in the Bank briefcase to Edge. Kennedy is currently the only wrestler to lose the briefcase without cashing it in. The following night at the taping for the May 11, 2007 SmackDown!, episode World Heavyweight Champion The Undertaker and Batista fought to a draw in a steel cage match, after which a returning Mark Henry assaulted Undertaker and left him injured in the ring. As Henry was leaving, Edge came to the ring with his briefcase, handed it to referee Jim Korderas, and defeated the Undertaker after one spear to win the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time.

text: The fourth Money in the Bank ladder match took place at WrestleMania XXIV and was intended to be another eight-man match-up, consisting of wrestlers from Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. Qualifying matches began on the February 18 episode of Raw, as both Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy qualified by defeating Snitsky[17] and Val Venis, respectively, in singles matches.[17] On the February 22 episode of SmackDown, Shelton Benjamin qualified by defeating Jimmy Wang Yang in another singles match.[18] Back on Raw, general manager William Regal placed Chris Jericho in a match against Jeff Hardy with the stipulation that if Jericho won, he would be in the ladder match. Jericho defeated Hardy in that match on February 25.[19] The following week on Raw, the two faced off once again, this time for Hardy's WWE Intercontinental Championship. Jericho won the match and title, and it was revealed that Hardy was suspended from WWE for 60 days for violating the wellness policy.[20] Hardy was subsequently removed from the Money in the Bank ladder match and WrestleMania altogether, making this ladder match a seven-man contest. Also on this episode of Raw, Carlito defeated Cody Rhodes to qualify.[21] On a SmackDown/ECW live event on March 9, United States Champion Montel Vontavious Porter defeated Jamie Noble to qualify.[22] On the March 11 episode of ECW, CM Punk defeated Big Daddy V to qualify.[23] On the March 14 episode of SmackDown, John Morrison defeated his tag team partner The Miz to be the last man to qualify.[24]

text: Punk won the WrestleMania XXIV match after trapping Jericho's leg in a ladder and then climbing the ladder. Punk cashed in his title shot on the June 30 episode of Raw. A farewell speech by Jim Ross was interrupted by then-World Heavyweight Champion Edge who had him removed from the ring and then began to insult the crowd, saying that they would never get to see a world championship being defended on Raw (as at the time both Edge and WWE Champion Triple H were members of the SmackDown brand). When he was about to leave the arena, Batista came out and assaulted Edge in retaliation for Edge cheating to win their title match the previous night at Night of Champions. Punk then immediately ran to the ring with a referee to cash in his contract, then performed a Go to Sleep on Edge to win the World Heavyweight Championship, making it Raw-exclusive in the process.

text: The fifth annual Money in the Bank ladder match was announced for WrestleMania XXV. Qualifying matches began on the February 23 episode of Raw, in which CM Punk qualified by defeating John Morrison and The Miz in a triple threat match.[25] On the March 2 episode of Raw, Kane defeated Mike Knox and Rey Mysterio in another triple threat match.[26] On the March 3 episode of ECW on Sci Fi, Mark Henry qualified for the match by defeating Santino Marella.[27] Both Montel Vontavious Porter and Shelton Benjamin qualified for the match on the March 6 episode of SmackDown, defeating Matt and Jeff Hardy in respective single matches.[28] On the March 9 episode of Raw, Kofi Kingston qualified by defeating Chris Jericho, after Jericho was distracted by Ric Flair.[29] Christian qualified the following night on ECW on Sci Fi by winning a tri-brand battle royal.[30] Finlay was the final person to qualify for the match when he defeated The Brian Kendrick on the March 13 episode of SmackDown.[31]

text: At WrestleMania XXV, Punk won the match and became the first wrestler to win two Money in the Bank ladder matches, and the only one to win the match for two consecutive years.[32] On the May 1 episode of SmackDown, Punk challenged the World Heavyweight Champion Edge for a non-title match with the intent that if he defeated Edge, he would cash in his title shot right after the match. Later that night, Punk defeated Edge and attempted to cash in. However, before the ringside bell could ring to start the title match, Punk and Edge were both attacked by Umaga and Jeff Hardy respectively. As a consequence, the match never started and Punk retained his contract.[33] Punk again tried to cash in for a World Heavyweight Championship match against Edge on the May 15 episode of SmackDown, but was again stopped by Umaga.[34] After Jeff Hardy defeated Edge in a ladder match to win the World Heavyweight Championship at Extreme Rules, Punk cashed in to win the World Heavyweight Championship for the second time. As a result of the fans booing him for cashing on Hardy, who was very popular with the fans, Punk began a gradual change of character into a villain.[35]

text: February–April[edit]

text: On the February 22 episode of Raw, it was announced that the sixth annual Money in the Bank ladder match would take place at WrestleMania XXVI. The first qualifying match was held later that night, where Christian defeated Carlito to qualify.[36] Three more qualifying matches were held on the February 26 episode of SmackDown, with Dolph Ziggler defeating John Morrison and R-Truth in a Triple Threat match, Kane defeating Drew McIntyre, and Shelton Benjamin defeating CM Punk to qualify.[37] The March 1 episode of Raw saw both Jack Swagger and Montel Vontavious Porter qualify by defeating Santino Marella and Zack Ryder respectively.[38] Matt Hardy was the next to qualify for the match when he defeated Drew McIntyre on the March 5 episode of SmackDown.[39] In what was initially declared as the final qualifying match, Evan Bourne defeated William Regal on the March 8 episode of Raw to become the eighth competitor.[40] Due to his favorable association with WWE Chairman Mr. McMahon, McIntyre was given a third chance on the March 12 episode of SmackDown to qualify for the match. In what would also be made a WWE Intercontinental Championship defense by SmackDown general manager Theodore Long, McIntyre defeated local competitor Aaron Bolo to qualify.[41] On the March 22 episode of Raw, the number of participants was once again increased to a record ten, when Kofi Kingston defeated Vladimir Kozlov to qualify.[42]

text: At WrestleMania XXVI, Jack Swagger won the match after knocking Christian off a ladder with the briefcase itself.[43] The following night on Raw, Swagger attempted to cash in his shot against the WWE Champion John Cena after ambushing Cena. However, as Cena recovered too quickly from the ambush, Swagger cancelled his match and retained his contract.[44] The next night, at the taping for the April 2, 2010 episode of SmackDown, after Edge attacked then World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho, Swagger cashed in his contract and successfully claimed the World Heavyweight Championship.

text: June–November[edit]

text: In February 2010, WWE announced that "Money in the Bank" would be the title to their July 18 pay-per-view event at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri.[45] The event included two Money in the Bank ladder matches featuring the Raw and SmackDown brands respectively. Unlike previous iterations of the match, the winners could only challenge for their own brand's World Championship.[46] All eight competitors for the Raw brand's match were announced on the June 28 episode of Raw by guest host Rob Zombie. The eight competitors were Randy Orton, The Miz, R-Truth, Chris Jericho, Evan Bourne, Ted DiBiase, John Morrison and Edge. On the July 5th episode of Raw, R-Truth was involved in an injury storyline with The Miz and was subsequently removed from the match and replaced by Mark Henry.[47] Two days later, WWE announced six of the competitors for the SmackDown brand's match through its official website: Matt Hardy, Kane, Cody Rhodes, Christian, Kofi Kingston and Big Show. On the July 9 episode of SmackDown, Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler both competed in qualifying matches and were added to the match.[48]

text: At the PPV, Kane won the SmackDown Money in the Bank match. Kane later cashed it in the same night by defeating Rey Mysterio to win the World Heavyweight Championship. He also became the quickest man to cash in the briefcase (soon equaled by Dean Ambrose). For Raw, The Miz won that brand's Money in the Bank contract. After a couple of aborted attempts (which due to the bell not sounding to start the matches, which allowed Miz to keep the briefcase on said occasions), Miz finally cashed in his title opportunity on the November 22, 2010 episode of Raw, immediately after Randy Orton successfully retained the WWE Championship against Wade Barrett in which The Nexus attacked Orton before the match and injured his right leg. Miz defeated Orton to win his first WWE Championship.

text: The second Money in the Bank pay-per-view took place on July 17, 2011 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. Raw's Alberto Del Rio and SmackDown's Daniel Bryan won their respective brands' 2011 Money in the Bank Ladder Match. At the end of the night, after CM Punk won the WWE Championship from John Cena, Mr. McMahon ordered Del Rio to come in and attempt to cash in his briefcase against Punk. (Punk had threatened to leave the company after the pay-per-view, as his contract was expiring.) Del Rio came out to do so, but Punk attacked him and fled through the crowd. A similar cash-in attempt was performed on then-champion Rey Mysterio on the July 25, 2011 episode of Raw, but Del Rio was again unable to cash in the briefcase. However, Del Rio was able to cash in his briefcase and defeated CM Punk for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam on August 14, 2011.

text: On the July 22, 2011 episode of SmackDown, Daniel Bryan announced that he was going to cash his contract in at WrestleMania XXVIII. On the November 25, 2011 episode of SmackDown, Daniel Bryan cashed in on World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry, who had been knocked out by The Big Show. Bryan got the pinfall victory and was awarded the championship, however SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long overruled the match due to Henry not being medically cleared to compete, the first time a Money in the Bank cash-in match was reversed. Since the match never officially took place, Bryan was given the briefcase back and again reiterated that he planned on cashing in at WrestleMania XXVIII, although he was given a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship against Henry in a Steel Cage match on a live holiday-themed episode of SmackDown the following Tuesday, which Bryan lost. On December 18, 2011 at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, after Big Show defeated Henry to win the World Heavyweight Championship, Henry attacked Big Show with a steel chair, allowing Bryan to cash in his briefcase on Big Show to win his first World Heavyweight Championship.

text: The third Money in the Bank pay-per-view took place on July 15, 2012 at the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona. There were the usual two Money in the Bank ladder matches; however, the matches were no longer separated by brands (as both Raw and SmackDown by this time had become full roster "Supershows"). Instead, they were separated by Championship (WWE and World Heavyweight).[49][unreliable source]

text: In the first match of the night Dolph Ziggler defeated seven other competitors to win the World Heavyweight Championship contract Money in the Bank ladder match. He attempted to cash it in on that same night for a title shot against Sheamus but was attacked before the referee could call for the bell so he retained his contract.

text: On the August 20 episode of Raw, Ziggler successfully defended his briefcase against Chris Jericho in career vs. contract match. As a result, Jericho was forced to leave WWE.

text: In the last match of the evening, John Cena defeated Kane, The Big Show, The Miz, and Chris Jericho to win the WWE Championship Money in the Bank briefcase in his first Money in the Bank ladder match. A special stipulation had been added before hand that only former WWE Champions could participate in the WWE Championship Money in the Bank ladder match for 2012. Cena won when the briefcase's handle snapped off while using it against Big Show, having previously blocked Show's KO Punch with it.

text: On the July 16, 2012 episode of Raw, Cena announced that he would cash his contract in the following week at Raw 1000. He became only the second wrestler after Rob Van Dam to give prior notice to the opponent. At Raw 1000, Cena failed to win the WWE Title when Big Show interfered in the match, causing champion CM Punk to be disqualified and retain the title (as championships don't change hands on disqualifications.). This made Cena the first Money in the Bank winner to fail to win a title.

text: During the December 3, 2012 episode of Raw, managing supervisor Vickie Guerrero was forced by Mr. McMahon to make Cena and Ziggler's match at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs a ladder match for Ziggler's World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank contract. On December 16, at the event, he successfully defended the briefcase with help from AJ Lee.

text: On the April 8, 2013 episode of Raw, Ziggler cashed in his contract on World Champion Alberto Del Rio, following Del Rio's handicap match win over Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter. Ziggler defeated Del Rio to win his second World Heavyweight Championship following nearly nine months of holding the briefcase.

text: A fourth Money in the Bank pay-per-view took place on July 14, 2013 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There were the traditional two Money in the Bank ladder matches – one for a WWE Championship contract, and the other for a World Heavyweight Championship contract.

text: On the June 24, 2013 episode of Raw, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Christian, Kane, and Rob Van Dam were announced by WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon as the participants in the WWE Championship contract match. Kane was later removed after being injured due to an attack by The Wyatt Family on the July 8th episode of Raw. Orton went on to win the contract at the PPV.

text: At the tapings for SmackDown on June 25 (aired June 28), SmackDown Senior Advisor Theodore Long announced that the participants in the World Heavyweight Championship contract match would be WWE United States Champion Dean Ambrose, Fandango, Antonio Cesaro, Jack Swagger, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow. Sandow won the contract at the PPV.

text: At SummerSlam, Orton cashed in his contract on WWE Champion Daniel Bryan, who had defeated John Cena to win the championship. Orton defeated Bryan to win his seventh WWE Championship, after WWE COO Triple H, who was the special guest referee between Bryan and Cena, attacked Bryan with a pedigree, following five weeks of holding the briefcase.

text: On the October 28, 2013 episode of Raw, Sandow cashed in his contract on World Heavyweight Champion John Cena. Cena defeated Sandow, making Sandow the second wrestler to unsuccessfully cash in the contract and the first to lose a cash-in match via pinfall.

text: On December 15, 2013 at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships were unified into the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

text: A fifth Money in the Bank pay-per-view took place on Sunday, June 29, 2014, at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The original plan for the event was that the winner of the ladder match would receive a contract for a match for the now unified title as normal. However, on June 9, defending WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan was forced to vacate the title due to a neck injury, and so the already announced ladder match (consisting of John Cena, Randy Orton, Alberto Del Rio, Bray Wyatt, Cesaro, Sheamus, Kane and Roman Reigns) became for the vacant championship instead.

text: On the June 17 episode of Main Event, Seth Rollins announced that in addition to the ladder match for the title, there would be a traditional Money in the Bank ladder match for a WWE World Heavyweight Championship contract at the PPV, and that Rollins would be the first entrant.[50] Further entrants were Bad News Barrett, Dolph Ziggler, Rob Van Dam, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston and Dean Ambrose. The latter, who had threatened to disrupt the match, was added to the match on Rollins' request. Bad News Barrett was later removed from the match due to an injury.

text: Seth Rollins won the match and the contract after Kane interfered on behalf of The Authority and knocked Dean Ambrose off the ladder. He attempted to cash in the following night on new champion John Cena, but was stopped from doing so by Ambrose. Rollins once again failed to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase, this time against WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar at Night of Champions after attacking him with a curb stomp. This failed attempt to cash in came after John Cena attacked Rollins, before the bell could be rung, due to Rollins costing Cena the championship minutes earlier.

text: At WrestleMania 31, Seth Rollins cashed in his briefcase during the main event championship match between defending champion Brock Lesnar and challenger Roman Reigns. By doing so, he turned the singles match between Lesnar and Reigns into a Triple Threat match. Rollins then proceeded to pin Reigns following a curb stomp and successfully captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. As a result, Rollins set various records: first, Rollins became the first person to cash in a contract while a championship match was in progress. He also became the first person to successfully cash in to win the then unified WWE World Heavyweight Championship. He became the first person to cash in his briefcase at WrestleMania. He also became the first to win the championship after cashing in without pinning the champion.

text: On June 14, 2015, the sixth annual Money in the Bank pay-per-view took place in Columbus, Ohio. Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, Neville, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton and Kane participated in the traditional Money in the Bank ladder match. Sheamus won the match and received a WWE World Heavyweight Championship contract.

text: At Survivor Series, Sheamus cashed in his contract by defeating Roman Reigns, who had just won the vacant championship after defeating Dean Ambrose in the tournament finals.[51]

text: On June 19, the seventh annual Money in the Bank pay-per-view took place in Las Vegas. For the traditional Money in the Bank ladder match, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Cesaro, Chris Jericho, Alberto Del Rio, and Dean Ambrose all won their qualifying matches on the May 23 episode of Raw to become entrants into the match. Originally slated to be a 7-man ladder match, the seventh slot was later removed. Ambrose won the match and received a WWE World Heavyweight Championship contract. After the conclusion of the main event, he cashed in the contract to challenge Seth Rollins, who had just won the title against Roman Reigns, and become WWE World Heavyweight Champion, thus making him the second wrestler after Kane to successfully cash in the contract on the same night as winning it.

text: The 2017 Money in the Bank pay-per-view took place on June 18, 2017 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri as a SmackDown brand exclusive event. For the traditional ladder match, which had a contract for a match for SmackDown's WWE Championship, SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon announced AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, and Baron Corbin as the original five participants. United States Champion Kevin Owens was added after he convinced Shane to make him the sixth participant. Mojo Rawley had the opportunity to make it a seven-man match if he could defeat WWE Champion Jinder Mahal, but failed to do so. At the event, Baron Corbin won the match and received a WWE Championship match contract. On the August 15, 2017 episode of SmackDown Live, John Cena had a non-title match against WWE Champion Jinder Mahal. As Cena was pinning Mahal, Corbin attacked him, causing a disqualification. Corbin then cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Mahal, but as soon as the bell rung, he attacked Cena, who was on the apron, allowing Mahal to quickly roll-up Corbin for the win. This made Corbin the third wrestler to unsuccessfully cash in the contract and the second to lose a cash-in match via pinfall.

text: On the May 30 episode of SmackDown Live, another Money in the Bank ladder match was added to the event, and for the first time, involving women. Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Carmella, and Tamina were originally scheduled to compete in a fatal five-way elimination match on that night to determine the number one contender for the SmackDown Women's Championship at Money in the Bank. Before their match could begin, a brawl broke out between the five and the match never occurred. McMahon then scheduled the five to compete in the first-ever women's Money in the Bank ladder match at the event where the winner would receive a contract for a SmackDown Women's Championship match. Carmella won the match after James Ellsworth retrieved the briefcase, and threw it to her. On the following episode of SmackDown Live, however, SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan forced Carmella to relinquish the briefcase since Ellsworth retrieved it for her.[52] On that same episode, Bryan also scheduled a Money in the Bank ladder match rematch for the June 27 episode with Ellsworth banned from ringside (later from the arena). That episode, Carmella, with some aid from the banned Ellsworth, retrieved the briefcase herself and reclaimed the SmackDown Women's Championship match contract.

text: Matches[edit]

text:
Raw Brand

SmackDown Brand

text:
Year
Event
Prize
Winner
Other competitors
Time

2005
WM 21
World Heavyweight Championship match
Edge
Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Shelton Benjamin, Kane, and Christian
15:17

In the 2005 WWE draft, World Heavyweight Champion Batista was drafted to SmackDown and WWE Champion John Cena was drafted to Raw, thus enabling Edge to challenge for the WWE Championship instead.[53]
Successfully defended his contract in a Ladder match against Matt Hardy at WWE Homecoming on the October 3, 2005 episode of Raw.
Edge held the contract for 280 days, which is still the longest amount of time any wrestler has held the contract.

2006
WM 22
Winner's brand's world championship match
Rob Van Dam
Matt Hardy, Shelton Benjamin, Ric Flair, Finlay, and Bobby Lashley
12:14[54]

Successfully defended his contract against Shelton Benjamin at Backlash in a contract vs championship winner take all match on April 30, 2006, winning Benjamin's Intercontinental Championship in the process.[55]
Van Dam is the first person to choose the event where he cashed in the contract and the first person to win a title in a match where opponent was given prior notice to the cashing in of the contract.
Van Dam held the contract for 70 days.

2007
WM 23
Any world championship match
Mr. Kennedy
Edge, Jeff Hardy, CM Punk, King Booker, Finlay, Matt Hardy, and Randy Orton
19:10[56]

Lost his contract in a match against Edge on the May 7, 2007 episode of Raw.[4]
Mr. Kennedy held the contract for 36 days.
As a result of the switch, Edge became a member of the SmackDown brand, marking the first time this occurred.
Edge held the contract for 1 day. (4 days according to WWE, due to the episode of WWE SmackDown airing on tape delay.)

2008
WM XXIV
Any world championship match
CM Punk
Mr. Kennedy, Chris Jericho, Shelton Benjamin, Carlito, John Morrison, and Montel Vontavious Porter
15:12[57]

As a result of the cash-in, the World Heavyweight Championship transferred back to Raw, marking the first (and only) time this occurred.
CM Punk held the contract for 92 days.

2009
WM XXV
Any world championship match
CM Punk
Christian, Shelton Benjamin, Kane, Finlay, Montel Vontavious Porter, Kofi Kingston, and Mark Henry
14:32

CM Punk held the contract for 63 days.
CM Punk was the first back-to-back Money in the Bank contract winner.

2010
WM XXVI
Any world championship match
Jack Swagger
Shelton Benjamin, Christian, Kane, Matt Hardy, Drew McIntyre, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, Montel Vontavious Porter, and Dolph Ziggler
13:44

Swagger becomes second MITB winner to switch brands after cashing in his contract.
Swagger held the contract for 2 days. (5 days according to WWE, due to the episode of WWE SmackDown airing on tape delay.)

Money in the Bank
World Heavyweight Championship match
Kane
Christian, Matt Hardy, Big Show, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, Drew McIntyre, and Cody Rhodes
26:18

Kane held the contract for 49 minutes. He was the first wrestler to cash in the contract on the same night as winning it.
Kane is the fastest wrestler to cash the money in the bank contract.

Money in the Bank
WWE Championship match
The Miz
Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Edge, John Morrison, Evan Bourne, Ted DiBiase, and Mark Henry
20:26

The Miz held the contract for 127 days.

2011
Money in the Bank
World Heavyweight Championship match
Daniel Bryan
Wade Barrett, Kane, Cody Rhodes, Sheamus, Sin Cara, Justin Gabriel, and Heath Slater
24:27

His first cash-in and win against Mark Henry was nullified. This marks the first time that a successful cash-in was reverted.
Bryan held the contract for 154 days.

Money in the Bank
WWE Championship match
Alberto Del Rio
The Miz, Rey Mysterio, Jack Swagger, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, and Alex Riley
15:54

Del Rio held the contract for 28 days.

2012
Money in the Bank
World Heavyweight Championship match
Dolph Ziggler
Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, Christian, Tyson Kidd, Sin Cara, Tensai, and Santino Marella
18:23

Successfully defended his contract against Chris Jericho on the August 20, 2012 episode of Raw in a career vs contract match.
Successfully defended his contract in a Ladder match against John Cena at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs.[58]
Ziggler held the contract for 267 days.

Money in the Bank
WWE Championship match
John Cena
Chris Jericho, The Miz, Kane, and Big Show
20:15

Cena is the first wrestler to not win a world championship in a cash-in match. He is also the second wrestler to announce when he was going to cash it in.
Cena held the contract for 8 days.

2013
Money in the Bank
World Heavyweight Championship match
Damien Sandow
Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett, Dean Ambrose, Jack Swagger, Fandango, and Antonio Cesaro
16:24

Second Money in the Bank winner to fail to win a world championship in a cash-in match.
First wrestler to cleanly lose a cash-in match
Sandow held the contract for 106 days

Money in the Bank
WWE Championship match
Randy Orton
CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Christian, Sheamus, and Rob Van Dam
28:38

Orton held the contract for 35 days.

2014
Money in the Bank
WWE World Heavyweight Championship match
Seth Rollins
Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Rob Van Dam, and Dean Ambrose
23:10

Rollins held the contract for 273 days.
Rollins is the first to cash in at WrestleMania, the first to win the championship after cashing in without pinning the champion and the first to cash in while a championship match was in progress.

2015
Money in the Bank
WWE World Heavyweight Championship match
Sheamus
Dolph Ziggler, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Neville, Randy Orton, and Roman Reigns
20:50

Sheamus held the contract for 161 days.

2016
Money in the Bank
WWE World Heavyweight Championship match
Dean Ambrose
Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, and Alberto Del Rio
21:38

Ambrose held the contract for 57 minutes. Ambrose was the second wrestler to cash in the contract on the same night as winning it.

2017
Money in the Bank
WWE SmackDown Women's Championship match
Carmella
Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Natalya, and Tamina
13:20

This was the first Women's Money in the Bank ladder match.
Carmella held the contract for 2 days.
SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan stripped Carmella of the briefcase two days after the event because of interference by Carmella's manager James Ellsworth, who retrieved the briefcase for Carmella and dropped it to her. A rematch was scheduled for the June 27 episode of SmackDown Live.

Money in the Bank
WWE Championship match
Baron Corbin
AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Shinsuke Nakamura
29:45

Third Money in the Bank winner to fail to win a world championship in a cash-in match and the second to cleanly lose a cash-in match.
Corbin held the contract for 58 days.

SmackDown Live
WWE SmackDown Women's Championship match
Carmella
Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Natalya, and Tamina
24:00

This was a rematch ordered by SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan after he stripped Carmella of the briefcase following the controversial finish at the Money in the Bank PPV. As a result of his actions during the original match, James Ellsworth was banned from the arena, though Ellsworth still interfered in the match on Carmella's behalf.
This was the first Money in the Bank ladder match to not air on pay-per-view, as well as the first to take place on SmackDown Live.
Carmella has held the contract for 151+ days.

text: Record[edit]

text:
Championship
Successful cash-ins
Attempts
%

WWE (World Heavyweight) Championship
8
10
.800

World Heavyweight Championship
7
8
.875

WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
0
0
–

Total
15
18
.833

text: Cash-in matches[edit]

text:
Won match and title

Won match but not title

Lost match

text: Males[edit]

text:
No.
Case Holder
Championship
Date
Location
Event
Results

01 !1
Edge
WWE Championship
January 8, 2006
Albany, NY
New Year's Revolution
Edge defeated John Cena after two Spears to win the championship following Cena's victory in an Elimination Chamber match

02 !2
Rob Van Dam
WWE Championship
June 11, 2006
New York, NY
ECW One Night Stand
Van Dam defeated John Cena in an Extreme Rules match after an attack by Edge and a Five-Star Frog Splash to win the championship

03 !3
Edge
World Heavyweight Championship
May 8, 2007 (aired May 11, 2007)
Pittsburgh, PA
SmackDown!
Edge defeated The Undertaker after a Spear to win the championship after Undertaker went to a draw in a steel cage match with Batista and was attacked by Mark Henry

04 !4
CM Punk
World Heavyweight Championship
June 30, 2008
Oklahoma City, OK
Raw
CM Punk defeated Edge after GTS to win the championship after Edge was attacked by Batista

05 !5
CM Punk
World Heavyweight Championship
June 7, 2009
New Orleans, LA
Extreme Rules
CM Punk defeated Jeff Hardy after two GTSs to win the championship following Hardy defeating Edge in a ladder match to win the championship

06 !6
Jack Swagger
World Heavyweight Championship
March 30, 2010 (aired April 2, 2010)
Las Vegas, NV
SmackDown
Swagger defeated Chris Jericho after a gutwrench powerbomb to win the championship after Edge attacked an already injured Jericho

07 !7
Kane
World Heavyweight Championship
July 18, 2010
Kansas City, MO
Money in the Bank
Kane defeated Rey Mysterio after a Tombstone Piledriver to win the championship after Mysterio successfully defended the championship against Jack Swagger

08 !8
The Miz
WWE Championship
November 22, 2010
Orlando, FL
Raw
Miz defeated Randy Orton after a Skull Crushing Finale to win the championship after Orton was attacked by The Nexus following a successful defense of the championship against Nexus leader Wade Barrett

09 !9
Alberto Del Rio
WWE Championship
August 14, 2011
Los Angeles, CA
SummerSlam
Del Rio defeated CM Punk after a step-up enzuigiri to win the championship after Punk defeated John Cena to become undisputed champion and was then attacked by Kevin Nash

10 !10
Daniel Bryan
World Heavyweight Championship
December 18, 2011
Baltimore, MD
TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs
Bryan defeated Big Show after an attack by Mark Henry to win the championship after Show defeated Henry in a chairs match to win the title

11 !11
John Cena
WWE Championship
July 23, 2012
Phoenix, AZ
Raw 1000
Cena won his cash-in match against CM Punk via disqualification after Big Show interfered, but failed to win the title because championships cannot change hands via count-outs or disqualifications (unless the match stipulation says otherwise)

12 !12
Dolph Ziggler
World Heavyweight Championship
April 8, 2013
East Rutherford, NJ
Raw
Ziggler defeated Alberto Del Rio after a Zig Zag to win the championship after Del Rio was attacked by Jack Swagger, who he had defeated along with Zeb Colter in a 2-on-1 handicap match

13 !13
Randy Orton
WWE Championship
August 18, 2013
Los Angeles, CA
SummerSlam
Orton defeated Daniel Bryan after a Pedigree from Triple H (who was special guest referee) to win the championship after Bryan had defeated John Cena to win the title. This was the first cash-in to feature a special guest referee

14 !14
Damien Sandow
World Heavyweight Championship
October 28, 2013
Orlando, FL
Raw
Sandow attacked champion John Cena and immediately cashed in the contract, but became the first man to lose a cash-in match when Cena won the match after an Attitude Adjustment

15 !15
Seth Rollins
WWE World Heavyweight Championship
March 29, 2015
Santa Clara, CA
WrestleMania 31
During the main event between Roman Reigns and defending champion Brock Lesnar, Rollins cashed in his briefcase. The referee accepted the cash-in while the match was in progress and converted the singles match into a triple-threat match. Rollins then pinned Reigns after a Curb Stomp to win the title. This was the first cash-in where the contract holder did not pin the champion

16 !16
Sheamus
WWE World Heavyweight Championship
November 22, 2015
Atlanta, GA
Survivor Series
Sheamus defeated Roman Reigns after a Brogue Kick to win the championship after Reigns defeated Dean Ambrose to win the vacant title

17 !17
Dean Ambrose
WWE World Heavyweight Championship
June 19, 2016
Las Vegas, NV
Money in the Bank
Ambrose defeated Seth Rollins after a Dirty Deeds to win the championship after Rollins defeated Roman Reigns to win the title

18 !18
Baron Corbin
WWE Championship
August 15, 2017
Providence, RI
SmackDown Live
Corbin interfered in a match between John Cena and WWE Champion Jinder Mahal and attacked Cena, who won by disqualification. He then cashed in the contract after almost departing, but after the match started, he attacked Cena who was on the apron and was then rolled-up by Mahal, making him the second man to have lost a cash-in match

text: Participant list[edit]

text: Males[edit]

text:
Wrestler
Victories
Appearances

CM Punk
2
4

John Cena
1
1

Seth Rollins
1
1

Baron Corbin
1
1

Mr. Kennedy
1
2

Damien Sandow
1
2

Daniel Bryan
1
2

Alberto Del Rio
1
2

Edge
1
3

The Miz
1
3

Rob Van Dam
1
3

Sheamus
1
3

Dean Ambrose
1
3

Jack Swagger
1
4

Randy Orton
1
4

Dolph Ziggler
1
6

Kane
1
7

Chris Benoit
0
1

Ric Flair
0
1

Bobby Lashley
0
1

Jeff Hardy
0
1

King Booker
0
1

Carlito
0
1

Ted DiBiase
0
1

Heath Slater
0
1

Justin Gabriel
0
1

Rey Mysterio
0
1

Alex Riley
0
1

R-Truth
0
1

Santino Marella
0
1

Tensai
0
1

Tyson Kidd
0
1

Fandango
0
1

Neville
0
1

Roman Reigns
0
1

AJ Styles
0
1

Shinsuke Nakamura
0
1

Drew McIntyre
0
2

John Morrison
0
2

Mark Henry
0
2

Sin Cara
0
2

Big Show
0
2

Wade Barrett
0
2

(Antonio) Cesaro
0
2

Sami Zayn
0
2

Kevin Owens
0
2

Finlay
0
3

Montel Vontavious Porter
0
3

Evan Bourne
0
3

Matt Hardy
0
4

Cody Rhodes
0
4

Shelton Benjamin
0
5

Chris Jericho
0
5

Christian
0
6

Kofi Kingston
0
6

text: Females[edit]

text:
Wrestler
Victories
Appearances

Carmella
2
2

Becky Lynch
0
2

Charlotte Flair
0
2

Natalya
0
2

Tamina
0
2